A Newbie’s Guide to Adulting After College: Public Transportation

TRANSPORTATION This one is pretty obvious but always underestimated. Depending on your location, if you decided to use a car look out for the following: car loan, car insurance, car taxes, GAS, repairs and maintenance, tolls, and parking. They add up very quickly, especially maintenance from driving day in and day out.

Want a car in NYC? I vote BAD IDEA. I guarantee maintenance costs will sky rocket with the amount of bumps in the road. Say goodbye to your car shocks. Gas? Forget about it. If you didn’t know, stop and go traffic eats through gas. Stop and go traffic is the only kind of traffic you’ll find in NYC at any given hour. Parking? Try our alternate street parking but make sure to move your car on time or be on a look out for a $45+ ticket or just no car at all. Good luck figuring out where it was towed to. If you’re up to it, try our garage parking. Be ready to cough up anywhere from $200 to $600 a month on garage parking.

Don’t forget those tricky NYC tolls. Leaving the city in any direction (towards Brooklyn, towards New Jersey, towards Connecticut), expect some sort of toll. This can range anywhere from $5 to $18 depending on which way you are heading. If you’re ready to spend as much as you do on rent on your car, then have fun. Otherwise…

Bump the car, let get close and personal. For those lucky enough to use public transportation, it will definitely be a cheaper expense. However, be prepared for crowded subways, buses, and trains that will bring out an ugly side of all passengers. Being packed like sardines at 8am is never fun. It’s even worse at 5pm when you think you are going to make it home in peace. Just make sure you have music with you to get in the zone (headphones only please!).

My favorite part of riding the subway is when it’s “Showtime!” (LOL to the linked Wiki Page). It’ll be interesting and unique the first time around but will start to feel like the norm after a while. Either way, I find that to be a good day on the subway. A bad day for me in getting stuck in a car with no A.C. OR a car that smells toxic, knowing that the next stop is about 10 minutes away because you are on the express train. Pray for me.

Anyhow, please do research the costs associated with your local city for this one. But I am pretty confident in saying that public transportation will always be cheaper than owning a car in a city. Cars are for the burbs.

Lastly, let’s not forget about Taxis, Ubers, Lyfts galore! This cannot be an everyday source of transportation if you are new to the working world. I will save this for really late nights and when your suburb friends visit (I promise you. They will not enjoy the ugly truths of the subway as much as you do).

Kindness makes you the most beautiful person in the world no matter what you look like.

This is very true in NYC. But be wary of those loaning that helping hand. Repayment Expected.

Until next time.